Question about "freestyle" or "traditional" dining on river cruises

My wife and I normally cruise NCL and the dining is what they call freestyle. In other words they don't have "traditional" dining in that you are assigned a table and a time to eat. You show up at the dining room, ask for a table for 2, and are seated.

What's it like on river cruises? Is it "freestyle" (eat any time the dining room is open at a table for 2) or traditional (assigned a table with other people at a given time) ?

My wife and I normally cruise NCL and the dining is what they call freestyle. In other words they don't have "traditional" dining in that you are assigned a table and a time to eat. You show up at the dining room, ask for a table for 2, and are seated.

What's it like on river cruises? Is it "freestyle" (eat any time the dining room is open at a table for 2) or traditional (assigned a table with other people at a given time) ?

I can't speak for other lines, but Viking only has one dining room, one seating and no tables for 2. You can eat on the Aquavit terrace, but it's a limited menu and pretty much dinner is at the same time - 7pm. You are not assigned a table. You can eat where ever and with whomever you want. We had a set of wait staff we liked, so we pretty much sat in their section every night - mostly with different people, but sometimes with the same people. With only a small group of other travelers (190 on Viking) you get to know others pretty fast.

Most lines ask you to come to the dining room at a set time. It is normally open seating but people do find waiters and sections they prefer and often like to stick with them.

With Uniworld we were able to arrive when we preferred, during the hours the dining room was serving dinner. The flexibility was welcome. On Scenic, we also arrived 45 minutes or so after the doors opened and no one looked at us askance.

We are rarely ready to have dinner at 7, which is the time we have found most open the doors for dinner.

For the specialty venues on all of the lines we have sailed so far, dinner is served at a set time as they are preparing a special menu for a limited number of guests. AMA and Scenic both offer a wine pairing dinner that is included and both were wonderful.

AMA, Scenic and Uniworld all have tables for 2 in the main dining room, but not very many. And they are quite popular.

You need to check this out very carefully. On Viking, everyone goes to dinner at the same time. I believe the the Crystal Mozart is more open seating times. Not sure about other lines. When we were on Uniworld, SS Antoinette, everyone ate at the same time, but it may have changed in the recent years.

You need to check this out very carefully. On Viking, everyone goes to dinner at the same time. I believe the the Crystal Mozart is more open seating times. Not sure about other lines. When we were on Uniworld, SS Antoinette, everyone ate at the same time, but it may have changed in the recent years.

Definitely now a come when you're ready, on Uniworld, we ate "late" about 50% of the time.

Robin

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Thanks for the replies

On Scenic the cruise director gave a talk at around 6:30 every evening which told about the following days schedules and tour times, etc. people met in the lounge and had pre dinner cocktails. After the talk the dining room opened at 7, and the majority of folks went directly to dinner from the talk. You didn't have to do it this way but it seemed as if most did

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Uniworld - as mentioned - allows you to come when you want to the main dining room. Having said that, virtually everyone arrives within 15 minutes of opening at dinner. Maybe because service is somewhat leisurely. We almost always spent 90 minutes or more at dinner.

Breakfast and lunch is a little more varied.

There are tables for two on all four Uniworld ships we have sailed. They are often close together so you don't really have much intimacy.

River cruising is so different from ocean cruising in one respect: there are so few passengers onboard (usually less than 150) you make friends easily. As a result, we usually had people we wanted to eat with by the second day of the cruise.

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The other thing that is very different about river cruising is the tours - because most of the people on the ship will all be on the same tour at the same time. It is a much more structured vacation. You'll never see anyone lounging on the top deck in their swimsuits. In fact, although our ship had an indoor pool, I don't think anyone ever used it or the movie theater onboard. A few passengers may stay onboard from time to time, but the vast majority of people are up early to have breakfast at the same time and then off the ship and onto the buses at the same time for the day's tour then either back for lunch or eat in town and more touring in the afternoon. The late afternoon, early evening, brings the meeting to learn what you will be doing the next day and then there may be some entertainment and afterwards off to dinner. After dinner, the entertainer onboard may play some music in the lounge but most go to bed early as they have to get up early the next morning to go on tours. On some river ships the rooms are much, much smaller than those on ocean going ships. Some river ships have larger rooms. So, there's a lot of variance.

Crystal is completely open seating and unstructured. The Mozart mainly has tables for two and four.

Crystal is completely open seating and unstructured. The Mozart mainly has tables for two and four.

And that's LUXURY. Hard to beat anything Crystal does and can't wait to try their river cruise product. Never have river cruised for many of the reasons that Crystal has now turned from a negative to a positive, example tables for two and no set time for dinning.

Crystal is completely open seating and unstructured. The Mozart mainly has tables for two and four.

And the food pictures I've seen look absolutely amazing!

And the food pictures I've seen look absolutely amazing!

It's steps up from Oceania which has very good food.

Another thing is the extensive verity ever single day.

I can only speak for Tauck, having been on three of their river cruises. Let's just focus on dinner.

There is a fairly broad time slot when you can enter the dining room for dinner, say 6:30-8:00 pm. Tables are not assigned, and are available in various sizes, from 2 to 8 people. Never had to wait for a table we liked. Sometimes we ate by ourselves at a two-top, and other times we dined with folks we liked, at larger tables.

There were only 82 passengers on our most recent cruise, which made the dining room experience great! They had 14 chefs!

Enjoy,

AG

Uniworld - as mentioned - allows you to come when you want to the main dining room. Having said that, virtually everyone arrives within 15 minutes of opening at dinner. Maybe because service is somewhat leisurely. We almost always spent 90 minutes or more at dinner.

 

Breakfast and lunch is a little more varied.

 

There are tables for two on all four Uniworld ships we have sailed. They are often close together so you don't really have much intimacy.

 

River cruising is so different from ocean cruising in one respect: there are so few passengers onboard (usually less than 150) you make friends easily. As a result, we usually had people we wanted to eat with by the second day of the cruise.

 

 

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I think Viking is actually pretty similar to Uniworld. I've never seen any issue with people arriving later to dinner but as you say, 90% of the people arrive in the first 15 minutes. For breakfast and lunch people arrive all during the times it is open.

Here is a photo of some tables for 2 on Uniworld:

http://www.globalrivercruising.co.uk/img/river-cruise-ships/uniworld-ss-maria-theresa-baroque-restaurant-550.jpg

It's not very private - really more like sitting at a table for 4. But then you are on a narrow river cruise ship so I'm not sure how much privacy you would expect.

Our Viking cruise...

My husband and I don't particularly like to share a table with anyone but friends and family. Our Viking experience reinforces that.

The first night we were seated a table for 6. Two couples joined us ad they were boring and not able to carry on anything but monosylabbic conversations. We tried to sit with different people but most of the people were traveling with families and in groups. The same four people glommed on to us each evening and it was not fun at all. We had to carry most of the conversation. They liked us but it was exhausting.. especially since service was slow. The last two nights we ate in the terrace buffet..

Our Viking cruise...

 

My husband and I don't particularly like to share a table with anyone but friends and family. Our Viking experience reinforces that.

 

The first night we were seated a table for 6. Two couples joined us ad they were boring and not able to carry on anything but monosylabbic conversations. We tried to sit with different people but most of the people were traveling with families and in groups. The same four people glommed on to us each evening and it was not fun at all. We had to carry most of the conversation. They liked us but it was exhausting.. especially since service was slow. The last two nights we ate in the terrace buffet..

Oh that's too bad. I don't think I would have liked that. We usually like to sit at a table for 2 on ocean cruises so we were a little apprehensive about the bigger tables.

The first night we sat at a table for 6 by a window. The waiter was the one we had for lunch earlier and he was great.

We were joined by a couple from Scotland and another from England and we had great conversation.

Each night we would try to sit in the same area with the same wait staff. Sometimes we had the same people as the first night, but more often different people added themselves to the mix. We met people from Canada, Ireland and Utah as well.

I hope on our next cruise we'll have the same luck. The thing that always concerns me about the big tables on an ocean cruise is that if you're doing set dining you're stuck (mostly) for the duration. I rather enjoyed sitting with different people each night.

Sorry you didn't get to do that.

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